Cooking pot sizes for 50, 100 and 200 people
Fifty people need about a 50 cm pot if you are cooking one wet dish. One hundred people need more than one pot, or a 60 cm degchi and a second 50 cm. Two hundred people is a line of commercial pots, not one heroic sufuria.
Hotel and school buyers get this wrong when they scale a home recipe by hope. A 32 cm pot that feeds twelve will not feed fifty if you just cook longer. You run out of volume. The stew boils over. The ugali in the middle stays raw.
A working capacity table
These servings assume a wet dish such as stew or beans, not dry rice packed to the rim. Leave headroom. Confirm litres on the piece we send.
| People | Pot to start with | Better plan |
|---|---|---|
| About 20 | 36 cm / 28 L | 36 cm plus a 32 cm for rice |
| About 50 | 50 cm / 70 L | 50 cm plus a 40 cm |
| About 100 | 60 cm / 90 L | 60 cm plus a 50 cm |
| About 200 | Two 60 cm pots | Two 60 cm and a 50 cm for starch |
One dish versus a full plate
If the plate is stew, rice and greens, count pots, not people. Rice wants its own pot. Greens want a wide shallow pan or a second sufuria. A school that plates three items for 200 students is a three-pot kitchen at minimum, plus service metal.
See the 50 cm / 70 L sufuria, the 60 cm / 90 L degchi and the 40 cm / 40 L sufuria.
Service after the pot
A hotel breakfast also needs something that holds heat on the pass. That is the 9 L triple chafing dish, not another degchi. Trays and 72-piece cutlery sit on the same order. Start from catering and events equipment if the job is a buffet, not a boarding kitchen.
Fuel and the floor
A 60 cm pot is heavy when it is full. Plan the burner, the stand and the two people who will move it. We photograph large pots with a person for scale because a picture of a rim against linen lies. Visit or ask for the height and the handle type before you buy six.
How we quote
Send the cover count, the menu, and whether you need open stock or a set. We quote on WhatsApp. We do not invent a wholesale column on this page. Use bulk and wholesale orders and commercial cooking pots.
The family size table is on the utensil size guide if you landed here by mistake.